Jefferies Nabs Morgan Stanley Complex Head to Run Wealth Business

For the second time time in two years, Jefferies has nabbed a veteran wealth manager from Morgan Stanley to steer its boutique wealth business.

Robert Peyreigne, who over his 28-year brokerage career has worked at Kidder, Peabody, UBS Financial, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, jumped on Thursday to Jefferies Wealth Management, according to well-placed sources.

Peyreigne, a 1981 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a former military pilot, was in charge of 450 people in four Morgan Stanley branches in New York City and Westchester County who produced $275 million and oversaw more than $40 billion of client assets, according to Jefferies’ internal announcement.

Before taking over Morgan Stanley’s Madison Avenue branch in mid-2009, he managed its Purchase office and had earlier been based in its Westport, Conn., branch.

Jefferies Wealth’s Chief Operating Officer Frank Scheuer and business development head Michael Brabant remain with the firm, said people familiar with their plans. The unit’s parent company is known primarily for its institutional trading prowess and middle-market investment banking business, but it has been gradually building its high-net-worth wealth business.